Argia and BAO Submission Guidelines

Download the guidelines | Download the submission form

All materials must be submitted digitally via email or some form of internet file sharing (Dropbox, Google Drive, TransferBigFiles, or similar).

ARGIA Submissions
Send to Amanda Whispell
editor@dragonflysocietyamericas.org

BAO Submissions
Send to Brenda “Bee” D. Smith
editorbao@dragonflysocietyamericas.org

All articles must be submitted along with a completed submission form
Articles should be submitted in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format with no embedded images, figures, tables, or captions
All photos and figures must be submitted as separate files
Captions for all images, figures, and tables should be submitted in a separate Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format document

Article Format

Use minimal formatting – a single column with paragraph returns

You may use bold / italic type as necessary
Fonts or font sizes don’t matter
All submissions should start as follows:
- Lines 1and 2 should list the article title and author names, respectively
- Line 3 should be left blank
- Line 4 you may begin your article text

Do not indent the start of each paragraph
Separate each paragraph with a blank line (two “returns” after a paragraph)
Use one space — not two — after each sentence
Include the following either at the end of your article or on your submission form:
- Contact information for each author (including e-mail for the primary author)
- A one or two-sentence tagline about each author
  Ex: Amanda is the Editor-in-Chief of Argia and is busy writing manuscripts related to her work on color change in Argia apicalis (blue-fronted dancer). She can be reached via her DSA email at editor@dragonflysocietyamericas.org or on her Twitter at @AmandaWhispell. For more information about her or her research, please visit www.amandawhispell.com.

Various Style Rules

Voice
Write in active voice, not passive.
Ex: We surveyed 12 ponds over the course of two field seasons is better than Twelve ponds were surveyed over the course of two field seasons.

Numbers:
Spell out numbers below 10; use numerals for everything else (unless it starts a sentence).

Family Names
Capitalize actual family names (e.g. Gomphidae); shorthand family names are acceptable in lower-case (e.g. gomphids).

Species Names
On first reference to any species, use both scientific and common names, in whichever order you prefer, according to the following formats: Ischnura verticalis (Eastern Forktail) or Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis). On second or subsequent references, you can use either common or scientific names only. Please be sure to use the scientific and common names maintained in the most recent Official Checklist of North American Odonatology.

Locations
Although it may seem counterintuitive, most style manuals, including this one, mandate a second comma after “City, State” constructions (unless it falls at the end of a sentence).
Ex: The DSA will hold its annual gathering in Orono, Maine, from 1-3 July 2015.

Latitude/Longitude
You can use either decimal degrees or degrees, minutes and seconds (avoid other formats). Please follow these rules for either format:

Decimal degrees should include either the direction (N or S of the Equator for latitude; and W or E of the Prime Meridian for longitude) OR negative values to indicate longitudes west of the Prime Meridian (The Americas) and for latitudes south of the Equator. If you use S or W to indicate direction do not use a negative value — it’s redundant. Don’t use more than 4 or 5 decimal places.
Ex: The Statue of Liberty’s location would be: 42.6892N, 74.0445W or 42.6892, -74.0445
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds should include the proper symbols.
Ex: The Statue of Liberty’s location would be: 40°41’21.30”N, 74° 2’40.20”W

States:
Please DO NOT use two-letter postal abbreviations for states (except in mailing addresses); everywhere else, write out the full name of the state.

Serial (Oxford) Comma
We use it.

Date Format:
Use no punctuation – 4 July 2021

Citation Format

We use the author-date style of citation.

In-text citations: Reference publications with no punctuation other than the parentheses; we do not cite page numbers here.

One author:
(Waage 1992)
Two authors:
(Conrad and Pritchard 1989)
Three or more:
(Tsubaki et al. 1997)

Reference list: Your reference list should not be indented. The citations that correlate to the in-text citations above should look like this:

One author:
Waage JK. 1979. Dual Function of the Damselfly Penis: Sperm Removal and Transfer. Science 203: 916–918. doi.org/10.1126/science.203.4383.916
Two authors:
Conrad KF, Pritchard G. 1989. An ecological classification of odonate mating systems: the relative influence of natural inter- and intra-sexual selection on males. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 45(3): 255–269. doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.1992.tb00643.x
Three or more authors:
Tsubaki Y, Hooper R, Siva-Jothy MT. 1997. Differences in adult and reproductive lifespan in the two male forms of Mnais pruinosa costalis Selys (Odonata: Calopterygidae). Researches on Population Ecology 39(2): 149–155. doi.org/10.1007/BF02765260

Submitting Additional Files

Do not imbed additional files (images, figures, tables) in the text of your article. These documents should all be submitted as separate files, named so that each can be easily identified and matched with its caption. Requirements vary depending on the type of graphic.

Images
Photographs should be either TIFF or JPG files — as large as is practical, but with a minimum of 300 pixels per inch.

If you are unsure about the final size, note that graphics can be scaled down without a loss of quality, but they cannot be scaled up without the loss.
Unless you are good at image editing, your best bet is to send the original file and let us make it look good for publication.
The printable area of a page of ARGIA or BAO is 6.5 × 9.0 inches, so no graphics will exceed these dimensions.
The editor will crop, scale, sample, and enhance photographs as deemed necessary.

Figures
Charts, graphs, diagrams, and other vector graphics (e.g. computer-drawn maps) can be submitted as raster graphics (PNG or TIFF) with a minimum of 600 pixels per inch.

You may be asked to provide the raw data for charts and graphs if your submitted graphics are deemed unsatisfactory.
When charts and graphs are generated in Excel or Numbers, please submit files with each chart or graph on a separate sheet and each sheet named appropriately (e.g. “Fig. 1”, “Fig. 2”, etc.).

Tables
Tables may be submitted as documents in Microsoft Word or as spreadsheets in Excel or Numbers.

If Excel or Numbers is used, place each table on a separate worksheet and name each worksheet appropriately (e.g. “Table 1”, “Table 2”, etc.).

BAO Submissions

When submitting an article to BAO you must include an abstract that is written in both English and Spanish